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04 Mar 2015 7:20:08am

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Hi to Leslie Cannold for a start :-)

I want to propose to you an alternative perspective on the concept of judgement ...

Like many other words, judgement has more than one specific contextual meaning, and like many other words, there is also a most generic form or interpretation of the word ...

... and in the case of the word "judgement" the most generic interpretation or definition of the word is going to be something along the lines of "a conclusion drawn as the result of analysis of evidence & arguments presented" (which may be more or less rational depending on whom is doing the judging).

Now, when I was a kid, I was told to be "less judgemental", and I tried & tried & tried, but I honestly just failed to stop judging people things & situations ... now on the other hand, as I gained life experience, my judgements did become wiser ... but what was even more important was something else I stumbled upon.

Now, since you appear to have a priest of some kind on your show, let's include religion at this point ... and I will say at the outset, I am an atheist & I can mathematically prove the insignificance irrelevance & redundancy of the concept of god ... so let's just not go there on that score ... but, the reason I do bring it up, is that I once asked a friend of mine whose opinion I respected (because he will always tell me the honest truth as he sees it without fluff & sprinkles):

" ... what do you think of that part of the bible where it says 'judge not' (etc) ?"

... to which he replied: " ... no that's idiocy, you might as well judge me because I am sure as hell going to judge you ... "

... and this got me thinking ...

So now, I have a philosophy based partly on that which he said to me, and partly on my own thoughts & experience, which is this:

" ... you might as well judge me (in the aforementioned generic sense of the word), because I am sure as hell going to judge you ... but what is important is not whether we make these judgements, as an honest person would not deny they are doing so, and would also be aware that we NEED to do so ... but what is truly important is that we remain humble enough to wisely acknowledge the certainty that our judgements may be in error, and so while we need them in order to form conclusions upon which to take action, we should temper our actions with that knowledge that we may have been mistaken, and particularly when it comes to actions that have an unjust &/or irrevocable consequence for the life of another living thing ... and in those cases where such a consequence would occur ... we need to weigh up the risk to ourselves of not acting, all other possible interpretations & actions we could take, and the risks of making a mistake ... "

Now, this is a vastly more sophisticated & comple

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